Welcoming Invaluable Input

Last Friday, I got the opportunity to instruct at Eleven Fifty Academy. I have been working with Eleven Fifty for three years, and always get re-energized when I actually teach a class, and this class was no exception. Many of the students come from industries other than IT or software development.

I believe the curriculum we are using works exceptionally well. It’s a one-day program that we designed for individuals whom can’t afford the price of the traditional two day Scrum class, or can’t make the time commitment. The course is broken down into two phases.

The first phase consists of pre-work for the students to get an intro to the basic concepts on their own time and at their own pace. Eleven Fifty requires students to complete the pre-work before they start the program. It’s a series of videos, blog posts, and articles that provide overviews for Scrum basics:

Intro to Agile

Intro to Scrum

Roles

Scrum Master

Product Owner

Development Team

Elements of Scrum

Sprint Planning

Sprint Review

Daily Scrum

Sprint Retrospective

Quizzes to reinforce the learning from each module.

The second phase is a one-day, in-class workshop that usually occurs within the first two weeks of each student’s time at Eleven Fifty. Our focus is to review and reinforce the knowledge the student acquired in the pre-work.

The pre-work encourages the student to consider Scrum, and it’s components, over a series of time. The underlying principle is that the more times students dissect the content, the more likely it is to be retained in their long-term memory. Some highlights:

The Ball Point Game

Review the Concepts

Roles

Events

Artifacts

Activities

Myth or Fact – Scrum Events

Pick and Place – Time permitting

Characteristics of Roles – Time permitting

Scrum Jeopardy – Coming soon

Final Scrum Activity – Building Lego City

Training Retrospective

Training retrospective is invaluable.

In the past, we have tried surveys. Their results were helpful, but not as effective as they could have been. I’m a fan of our current approach – at the end of the class, I explain the following:

“I would like for the students to provide a retrospective.”

“After spending a day with you, you will likely hesitate to provide direct feedback if I am in the room. I am going to step outside.”

“As a group, self-organize by identifying a facilitator, who will facilitate the retrospective.”

“Identify what we did well, what didn’t work, and what we can improve.”

” When you think you’ve got it, come and find me. I’ll be outside.”

“Upon my return to the class, I would like someone (usually ends up being the facilitator) to walk me through the good, the bad, and the improvements.”

Pretty straightforward, right? It is, but I have had to learn something: feedback is the best form of payment I can get. It is crucial to respect the students and value of their thoughts, I by listening without defending or rationalizing my position. I welcome their opinions and put them to use. This interaction was enlightening and incredibly constructive.

Feedback is the best form of payment I can get.

It’s human nature for us to get defensive. In the case of the Scrum training, Tana initially put a lot of time enhancing and improving my original training deck. It would have been easy to get defensive, to rationalize, and have hurt feelings. All that doesn’t matter if I didn’t learn from constructive criticism.

Consider how you might use the concept of a retrospective in your everyday work life. Maybe you can ask your peers or your direct reports to do a retrospective. Perhaps that church group you are leading or the not-for-profit where you’re working or volunteering. If you don’t ask, you won’t get feedback. If you aren’t respectful towards the input and those that provide it, you are missing a great opportunity.

To those who attended my class on Friday, thank you. It’s one of the best gifts I can get.

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